


The Guy in the Corner Booth

by Ultra



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship/Love, Love Confessions, Penny POV, Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 18:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20376373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: It was impossible for her not to notice him, even though he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy she usually noticed... After all, Dr Sheldon Cooper was beyond just being smart. He was a certified genius and Penny had to be certifiably crazy if she thought he was looking for a date when he came into the coffee shop every day.





	The Guy in the Corner Booth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mierke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/gifts).

> Mierke - I didn't get a chance to sign up for the exchange this year, but when I saw your requests on the pinch hit list, my brain took in the Shenny pairing and the Coffee Shop AU tag and started writing a fic in my head before I had hardly realised what was happening. Now, I just really, really hope you like it :)

It was impossible for her not to notice him, even though he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy she usually noticed. Penny had a shockingly long list of boyfriends, dates, conquests behind her. Bodybuilders and line-backers, the big beefy type that could throw her over their shoulder with ease, that was Penny’s type, until she came to find that all brawn and very little brains didn’t usually lead to a meaningful relationship.

Not that she was exactly looking at this guy for dating purposes, or maybe the thought had crossed her mind once or twice, but never too seriously. After all, Dr Sheldon Cooper was beyond just being smart. He was a certified genius and Penny had to be certifiably crazy if she thought he was looking for a date when he came into the coffee shop every day.

That didn’t mean they didn’t have some kind of relationship. After all, it had been months now, almost a year, since she first started seeing him on a daily basis, Monday through Friday. She had learnt pretty fast that he always had to sit in the same booth. He also never, ever ordered coffee, but had a regular order dependant on the days of the week that rarely if ever altered. She couldn’t tempt him into something different, not with a friendly recommendation or a discounted offer. There was also a different design of T-shirt for every day too, with logos that she had long since questioned and learnt the meanings behind.

To say he was set in his ways would be an understatement, which was why Penny was so surprised when Sheldon came into the coffee shop on a Saturday, in a T-shirt she never saw before, looking oddly agitated. He didn’t even make it up to the counter, just slid into his usual booth, which was luckily unoccupied, hands playing nervously with his cell phone and eyes peering through the window.

Penny frowned with concern, her arm shooting out to stop her fellow barista when she attempted to go take his order.

“I got it,” she said definitely.

“I thought you were going on your break?”

“Yeah, well, whatever,” she snapped at the poor startled teen beside her. “I still got it,” she insisted, pushing her way from out from behind the counter and walking over, tucking loose strands of hair behind her ears as she went.

“Well, if it isn’t my favourite scientist guy,” she said as she reached Sheldon’s table, pulling the cloth from her apron pocket and pretending she just came over to wipe the table down for a minute.

Sheldon still looked up at her like a deer in the headlights of a Mack truck at first. Knowing how easily startled he was sometimes, Penny knew she had to be careful, especially when he looked pretty freaked before they even started.

“How’re you doing, sweetie?” she asked carefully, trying for a smile.

Sheldon shook his head slightly before he answered.

“I suppose I would have to say I’m well. Physically, I’m in good health at least,” he said, seemingly distracted yet. “I’m sorry, how are you?”

“Ugh, work on a weekend, not the greatest.” Penny rolled her eyes, dropping down into the seat opposite and moving the cloth between her hands. “But I guess I’m healthy too. So, we don’t usually see you on a Saturday.”

“My roommate is trying to disengage from an awkward sexual encounter.” Sheldon sighed. “It was not something I wished to bear witness to, especially when I was waiting on a call from my mother,” he said, staring down at the cell now a couple of inches from his hand on the table top.

“Oh, you talked to your mom. You guys get along, right?”

“For the most part.” Sheldon nodded. “For all that we have very different views of the world she’s always been one person who supports me, who has done everything she can for me.”

Penny’s forehead furrowed with concern as she realised what all this might mean.

“Sheldon, is she... Your mom, she’s okay, right?” she checked, resisting the urge to put her hand on his own, knowing he wasn’t usually a fan. “Uh, she’s physically in good health?” she tried, using his own phrasing, as if they might help.

Sheldon looked at her strangely, presumably wondering why she ever wondered such a thing. Penny wasn’t offended, it happened a lot with the two of them.

“Certainly,” he told her. “I believe the phrase is ‘the constitution of an ox,’ though I’m certain my mother would have no wish to be compared to an infertile male bovine,” he considered. “She called for our usual catch up, every month just to confirm all is well. Each time, she asks me, with increasing frustration in her voice, if I’ve met a nice girl yet.”

Penny smiled and nodded her head in understanding.

“Isn’t that normal for parents when their kids get older? My dad sometimes asks me if I met a nice guy yet, when he might get grandkids.”

“But you must have no trouble attracting men.” Sheldon shook his head. “Unless... is it that you would rather attract women?”

“No, no,” Penny insisted, a little startled by his assumption, though she couldn’t say why. “I like to... attract men. I just don’t always attract the right _kind_ of men,” she explained, the cloth straining between her hands as she twisted it around and around. “Not the kind that would want to marry me and have kids or whatever, you know?” When she looked at Sheldon then she found him staring at her as if she had multiple heads. “What?”

“I’m just marvelling at the concept of any man considering the possibility of life at your side and deciding against the idea,” he told her straight, the way he said everything she had come to find, though they never really covered this kind of topic before. “In the past eleven and a half months of knowing you, I have always found you kind, reasonable, strangely sharp of mind for a server in a common coffee shop, and you are, unquestionably, the most attractive woman I’ve ever seen in real life.”

Penny felt her eyes were so wide they were likely to roll out of her head any second, and yet she couldn’t seem to do anything about it. Sheldon was always nice to her, sometimes vaguely complimentary, but he had never said anything like that before. She was bowled over and weirdly emotional.

“Wow, okay. Um, thank you, Sheldon,” she told him eventually, wondering at his confused expression.

“For what?” he asked cluelessly. “I’m only stating facts, that’s nothing to be grateful for.”

“Believe me, sweetie, it really is,” Penny insisted, her hand patting his arm, until she noticed him noticing the contact. “I’m sorry,” she said, quickly retracting her hand and looking guilty.

“That’s quite alright,” Sheldon assured her, though Penny continued to squirm.

“I remember you telling me that you’re not always comfortable with contact.”

“With strangers, that’s true, but we are hardly strangers, Penny.”

She opened her mouth to say something in response to that, though Penny wasn’t absolutely sure what the right words were. She licked her lips, looked down at her own hand still pretty close to Sheldon’s arm. Just when she had an idea of what she might say next, his phone vibrated on the table, buzzing and dancing on the surface.

“Your mom again?” she checked, swallowing hard.

Sheldon nodded. “I should apologise to her. For the first time in my life, I hung up on my mother,” he said aloud, as if just realising the truth of the fact. “It is not something I’m proud of, not to the mention the fact that I’m well aware I’d be due for a spanking if she were not one thousand five hundred miles away.”

Penny might have made a joke about that last part at any other time, but not today, not in this moment.

“Was it because of the dating thing?” she asked instead.

“It was.” Sheldon sighed, watching the phone ring yet. “My sister is getting married next month and I, in an attempt to appease my mother, told her on our previous call that I would attend with a date. When I confessed the truth today, she was by no means happy, and to avoid her disappointment, I ended the call.”

“Well, before you make her any more mad, why don’t you pick up?” Penny advised, scooching the phone a little closer to his hand.

“And say what?” asked Sheldon, looking up at the same moment she did and meeting her eyes.

“That you’re sorry,” said Penny, taking a deep breath before she could go on, “and that you’ll be at the wedding, with a date that won’t disappoint her. At least, I’d try not to be embarrassing or anything.”

She attempted a smile and was fairly certain it had worked when she saw the slightest hint of the same expression on Sheldon’s face. The next moment, his cell was in his hand as he accepted the call and placed the phone to his ear.

“Momma, I’m sorry for hanging up on our previous call, but I do have a date for Missy’s wedding,” he explained fast.

Penny exhaled and braced her hands on the table top to stand up. She failed to make it onto her feet when Sheldon’s hand landed on hers and kept her with him. She sat straight back down and watched curiously as Sheldon listened to whatever his mother was saying. An eyeroll proved he wasn’t impressed by what he heard.

“No, she is not a robot that I built in a lab,” he explained, at which Penny couldn’t help but giggle. “Her name is Penny and I think you’ll like her very much,” he said, glancing up to meet her eyes once more, a genuine smile curving his lips. “I know I certainly do.”

(Nobody could say their trip to Texas and time spent with the Cooper family was anything but successful when Missy’s wedding rolled around, but it was nothing compared to Sheldon and Penny’s own nuptials six months later. Now that was a day to remember.)


End file.
